Top 45 countdown

You know the routine … only a modest shakeup given last week’s happenings.

If there’s a regret here, it’s that I didn’t send Tennessee straight from the top 10 to outside the top 25. Probably should have after the Volunteers laid a prodigious egg at Southern California on Saturday. That could be further accounted for on next week’s ballot. Just a warning.

SEE RELATED:

Otherwise, it’s still hard to sift through the accomplishments to date. Some teams have more losses but a far better schedule (hello, North Carolina). Some programs have just devoured chump after chump and have a big, shiny record to show for it.

So this top 45 … still not as in focus as I’d like it to be at this stage. Then again, it usually takes until New Year’s for things to fully shake out anyway.